This is apparently my day to announce new Frog God Games pdf lines. First Lost Lore and not this. :-)

With our recent Cults of the Sundered Kingdoms Kickstarter we launched in experiment for dabbling in the realm of short fiction with Tales the Lost Lands, Tales Pack 1 and Tales Pack 2. These short stories are released in conjunction with specific products (in this case the three short stories in each Tales Pack ties in with the adventure path or gazetteer featured in Cults of the Sundered Kingdoms) and provide canonical information in support and even to expand on the information provided in the game books. In fact, one of my goals was to make each Tale of the Lost Lands hold a level of canonical detail unique to it alone, so fans of the Lost Lands can know they're getting more than just a cool story but actual new bits to the overall Lost Lands picture. But, of course, the main goal is to tell really cool stories set in the Lost Lands.

Each Tales Pack pdf consists of three short stories and runs about 30 pages long. For the price of $2.99 each, we thought that a buck a story was probably a fair way to introduce the new line. :-) In addition to being canonical to build on the game depth for players and GMs alike, each story begins with a spoiler alert to let GMs know the dangers of letting his or her players read the stories, what adventures/products they might spoil, and which ones would be better to let players read aftercompletion of a specific adventure. We want them to be a useful tool for both players and GMs but to not mess up any campaigns for GMs.

Our first two Tales Packs (just released to the Kickstarter backers) are now available at froggodgames.com here and here, though they'll be for sale here at Paizo soon as well.

The first two packs have works associated with the Cults of the Sundered Kingdoms gazetteer and adventure path, but we've got additional packs in the works for the upcoming Lost Lands products Borderland Provinces and The Northlands Saga Complete as well.

The first two feature the following stories:

Tales Pack 1
"Dominus Est" by Jeff Provine - a look at the secret history of Count Wynston Mathen, his accursed bloodline featured in the classic Necromancer Games adventure Aberrations included in the adventure path, and his time spent with the Great Crusade in the mysterious eastern land of Khemit.
"The Doom That Came to Saranganatha" by Nathan Shank - a glimpse into the prehistoric doings and resulting catastrophe that underlie the entire Cults of the Sundered Kingdoms adventure path.
"The Humble Friar, or Better Than One" by Kevin Wright - a look at the reign of the Tyrant of Lowport and the establishment of the enigmatic Lezcano's Inn outside of town where a group of adventurers has set up shop just outside that city's walls to become a constant thorn in the tyrant's side.

Tales Pack 2
"Among the Cattails" by Rick McCracken - the children's fable "Cat Takes a Wife" has been told as a bedtime story for years and even gave name to the Sundered Kingdoms town of Cat's Wife. But what happens when a stranger comes to town and weaves a dark tale about the centuries-old truth behind the fable while seemingly knowing far more about it than should be possible?
"Regrets Only" by Arlan Bullard - the classic Necromancer Games adventure Morrick Mansion centers around the heroes trying to break into the Morrick Estate and survive the horrors that exist there as a result of the wedding held there 5 years ago that fell under a powerful curse and went horribly, horribly wrong. Now with "Regrets Only" you can be on the inside and see what it was like to get an invitation to that ill-fated soiree.
"Under New Management" by Jeff Provine - The Empire of Oceanus has conquered the city of Oestre. But can even a military power such as Oceanus successfully cow a long-established cutthroat merchants consortium? And what about the ancient cult that stands behind it as the true source of its power?

So that's it so far, but look for more such as "Echoes from the Otherside" and "Home Waters" and others with the upcoming Borderland Provinces and Northlands Saga releases.

And since this is a brand-new foray for us, we'd really like to know what you think of these collections. So, please, let us know what you think while we determine their future as a product line. Thanks!

I just wanted to get the word out about a new product line of pdfs that Frog God Games has launched called Lost Lore. These are short, bite-size pdfs of Pathfinder crunch mixed with Lost Lands flavor that John Ling has been working on and developing for the last year or so. We've finally gotten enough of them through development to launch them for sale.

John can give you more detail on them, but I'll give the short version. These are pdf-only products that run around 10,000 words (roughly the length of the average adventure in the old days of Dungeon Magazine) priced at $3.99 (though, of course, with our daily deal sales, folks who receive those emails can probably get them discounted from time to time). They are currently only written for Pathfinder (though with enough demand we could probably do Swords & Wizardry and/or 5e versions of them as well).

They'll be released on roughly a semi-monthly schedule, so there should be two new offerings available for your review each month, and we'll maybe do more in busy months like around Christmas or what have you.

Each is its own self-contained bit of rules creation like: new classes, magic items, spell lists, schools of magic, rules for establishing a town, monster ecologies, even short adventures. Really whatever the write can come up with that sounds cool is fair game. They are also the means by which we're reaching out to freelancers who are interested in doing some writing for Frog God Games, since we haven't had a formal way to do so since the days of Necromancer Games and people have often asked.

In addition, each of these pdfs is 100% canon for the Lost Lands campaign setting we're developing, so folks who want to play with our adventures in that setting don't have to worry about dropping stuff from these pdfs into play. They all receive a thorough canon review before going to publication.

John Ling of WereCabbages, Razor Coast, and even these very boards fame is the lead developer and point of contact on these. He's also done some writing for them, though by no means is it limited to his work alone. We began releasing them at the beginning of July, and our first two releases were authored by Michael Kortes and Russell Brown, who are no strangers to long-time Paizo fans, and there's plenty more waiting in the wings.

On a battlefield where positioning is key, the portalist is king. By uncovering the secrets of leaping through hidden tears in the fabric of reality the portalist changes the rules by which ordinary melee is fought. Part warrior and part planar sage, the portalist keeps himself lightly armored and lightly armed, maximizing his ability to move in ways previously thought impossible. A true rarity, some portalists form a secret order dedicated to the mysteries of dimensional travel, while others are loners who study the secrets of teleportation on their own. Individual portalists are as different as the style of portals they create. Many are flashy, travelling through inter-dimensional wormholes with a cacophony of thunder and lightning, while others silently slip in and out of the world through tiny fissures near-invisible to the untrained eye.

Grand Duke Iltobarus has taken a sudden interest in the Windreft, a remote area of dangerous wilderness made accessible by resolution of the civil war that has raged for decades in the Westmarches of Reme. He has granted lands and charter to a small group of settlers — good, loyal Remen everyone — to establish a new town there. These settlers will face danger, so the grand duke has called for brave and clever protectors to watch over the new town as it grows. That’s you.

To keep the town safe, you’ll have to be on constant watch for enemies, and there are many in the Windreft. Orc tribes control much of the nearby foothills, hobgoblins camp in the north, boggards infest the waterwoods across the river, gnolls hunt in the open plains, and trolls sometimes wander down from the Green Mountains. And if some scholars are correct, Glory sits right above a mythical subterranean world called the Kingdom Beneath.

The Town of Glory presents a new rules mini-system for building and growing frontier communities, giving players and GMs multiple options to add onto their existing game play.

With many more to follow.

The links above take you to the Frog God Games webpage, but soon they'll be available here at Paizo.com as well.

I'd like to thank Nick Logue for bumping me to Celebrity Game "#2" AND clearly paying some Paizo staffer to purposely misspell the unusual elongation of my last name with its far more commonly encountered, truncated form in the event title. He truly is a diabolical fiend.

Nevertheless we shall soldier on. I gave Wes the spiel on the game so he has probably by now rightfully shredded it and burned the shredded bits while frantically looking for a Celebrity Game #2 replacement. But in the event that we somehow slip through the cracks in the system I look forward to seeing Eric Mona*, Jason Bullman*, Jessica Price**, Stephen Randy-MacFarland*, and Brandon Hodges* for our game.

(Haha! See? Two can play at your little game, Nick Louge! Two can play!!)

*With sincerest apologies to Erik, Jason, Stephen...but not Brandon, seriously, screw that guy. :-)
**Jessica I have never met and thought maybe butchering her name was not the best way to handle first introductions.

The walls of Endhome provide sanctuary for many who dwell on the Sinnar Coast: a place to conduct trade, a warm bed at night, and a fire to sit beside with a jack of ale into the late hours of the evening, but across the Gaelon River lies chaos.

The Lost Lands Return!

First introduced with the Lost City of Barakus Kickstarter, the Sinnar Coast region map detailed thousands of square miles of territory stretching from Rappan Athuk in the north all the way to the Domain of Hawkmoon far to the south. While many locations on the map are familiar from old Necromancer Games titles and more recent Frog God Games products, the map itself did little to tell the story of this region and even less to answer questions that it raised: Who rules beyond the Gaelon River? What hazards and ruins await south of the well-known dungeons of Rappan Athuk and Barakus? And, what has led to this land becoming known as the Sundered Kingdoms?

As part of the ongoing strategy of Frog God Games to take older and hard-to-find Necromancer Games products and update them not only to new Pathfinder Roleplaying Game and Swords & Wizardry Complete rules but also to incorporate them into the Lost Lands setting as a way to introduce them to fans old and new alike, Cults of the Sundered Kingdoms takes three classic Necromancer Games adventures: Patrick Lawinger’s Morrick Mansion, Casey W. Christofferson’s Aberrations, and Dave Brohman’s Crystal Skull and integrates them into a continuous plot for an adventure path that takes PCs from level 3 to 15+, perfect for the party that has finished exploring the dungeons beneath Barakus and is looking for the next road to adventure.

But Cults of the Sundered Kingdoms is much more than just an update of those three previously published adventures. To the adventure path it adds three new original adventures written by Greg A. Vaughan called The Beast Within, Shades of Yellow, and Vengeance in the Hollow Hills that both tie in with the three older adventures and also move the plot from one to the next to create the continuity of the adventure path. While you could play any or all of the six adventures as standalone sessions, you can also use them as a single contiguous campaign to explore a large region of the Lost Lands.

The First Lost Lands Gazetteer

In addition to the updated and expanded adventure path, Cults of the Sundered Kingdoms includes a campaign guide that expands upon the regional map of the Sinnar Coast. The central portion of that regional map is called the District of Sunderland, known more colloquially as the Sundered Kingdoms. Cults of the Sundered Kingdoms includes a full-color poster map that focuses on the Sundered Kingdoms from Endhome in the north to the southern extent of the Duchy of Southvale in the south, from Grollek’s Grove in the west to the farthest reaches of Ramthion Island in the east. The adventure path takes players from one end to the other with many a stop in between, but the included gazetteer details the dozens of nations, cities, wilderness areas, ethnicities, and geographic features of note within the area as well. It also provides a regional history including more global events of the Lost Lands that had a direct bearing on the area, giving the first sneak peak at the Lost Lands bigger picture hinted at and referenced throughout more than 15 years of Necromancer Games and Frog God Games products alike. This detailed history and timeline extends back more than 3,000, years telling the history of not only a significant portion of the Lost Lands but also the unknown back stories to classic Necromancer Games products.

Finally the Cults of the Sundered Kingdoms campaign guide also includes a chapter dedicated to the 13 insidious cults that are endemic to the Sundered Kingdoms region and are, perhaps, the true reason for its centuries of strife. This guide includes not only a write up of some of the most iconic and some not-so-well-known evil powers of the Lost Lands (yes, Orcus and Tsathogga are both there…along with 11 others) but also provides details of their individual cults, where they are located, and how they operate in and affect the Sundered Kingdoms as well as the rest of the Lost Lands.

Old School Bonus!

And as one more bonus for those old-time Necromancer Games fans (and new Frog God Games fans!) who followed all the releases in order to maintain a complete collection — even the hard-to-find stuff — we’ve got something you’ve never seen before. When Crystal Skull was first published back in 2005, a secret level was written as bonus material but was never released. We’ve dug back through the Necromancer Games archives and uncovered this gem; we’ve dusted it off, updated its rules, and incorporated it into the book so that it now serves as the climax of the entire adventure path! Now on the 10th anniversary of its original release, you can experience Crystal Skull as Orcus originally intended but with the bonus of it serving to cap off an entire campaign incorporating three classic Necromancer Games adventures, three brand new adventures, and a whole host of Lost Lands legends, lore, and deepest, darkest secrets.

Be the master of your Lost Lands campaign; buy The Lost Lands: Cults of the Sundered Kingdoms and remind your players that there’s more to fear in the Lost Lands than just the dungeons.

I was just writing a short post in a nearby thread about folks who actually have the nerve/madness to run their players through the epic campaign The Slumbering Tsar Saga that Frog God Games put out a few years back, and in the process of teasing some of our upcoming stuff my short post became quite bloated. I then realized I was repeating some stuff I had put piecemeal in a few other posts here and there and thought it might be more efficient just to get it all in one place rather than answer the same questions in 9 different threads. So for those of you who have seen this for the umpteenth time, my apologies; I will commence shutting up after this/these post(s). (except to answer questions of course) ;-)

For the rest who may be interested, here is a large part of the proposed schedule of releases by Frog God Games. It is by no means complete and focuses mainly on the Kickstarters I see us doing (which we do for our larger, more-expensive-to-produce products). We try to do around 4 KS a year and then release smaller projects that we can fund with less risk in between or in concordance with those flagship releases. So without further ado:

First Quarter:
Shipment of Sword of Air and Quests of Doom Kickstarters from 2014 are our first priority.
I know Sword of Air has gone to the printers and released in pdf form for backers. The pdf for nonbackers will become available when we get the print copies back and shipped. That is also when we'll put the hard copy version of SoA up for sale for nonbackers as well. This is my understanding of the distribution schedule to get give the backers priority, but Bill can come and correct me if necessary.
Quests of Doom is either at the printers (or nearly so). I know the adventures are all done and haven't heard any panicked discussion from the rest of the FGG crew which is usually a good sign it is either printing or at least going through layout where the capable hands of Chuck Wright can bring all chaos to order. Anyway, I think this one will become available shortly after SoA and will probably be handled in a similar way as far as distribution goes. A great deal of thanks to the patience of all the backers. Between scheduling issues related to the release of 5e rules by WotC and sanity issues related to trying to corral and bring together all of the loose threads of Bill Webb's magnum opus, getting these two projects into print has been a trial and much more time consuming than we originally calculated. But we want to get them right the first time rather than send out a substandard product, so we truly appreciate the loyal backers who have patiently awaited these. You guys are the best.

However, as a result of the slowness in delivery of those two KS, we have made getting them shipped before going onto new projects a priority. As a result none of the other KS scheduled for 2015 will happen until at least one (if not both) of those have shipped to the backers. That said, assuming those begin shipping in Q1 we will do our next KS in Q1. It will be a bit less ambitious and more wallet friendly than SoA to let everyone and their holiday expenses take a bit of a breather. And that KS will be...(more to follow in next post)

Greetings all, the Big Frog just poked me out of my usual stupor to point out a new Kickstarter that Frog God has just...kickstarted.

A new Kickstarter?!?! you say. Didn't you guys just finish one yesterday? Well, yes, thank you for asking, we did. Actually it's the fault of that KS that we're having this KS. Personally I blame 5e (Ooohhhh, edition-warring! Bring on the flames and trolls and flaming trolls!). No seriously, it's the other KS's fault, and it was a success.

See in that KS as Necromancer Games entered the world of 5e (with the blessing of all the Frogs-That-Be), the KS included a book of up to 18 adventures called Quests of Doom. It included conversions of the old Necromancer Games 3.0 classics Demons and Devils and Liches and Vampires (6 adventures altogether written by Bill, Casey Christofferson, and Clark Peterson) plus up to another 12 all new adventures. We got folks like Steve Winter, Ed Greenwood, Jim Ward, Casey Christofferson, Skip Williams, Michael Curtis, Matt Finch, Jim Collura, and some schlub named Bill Webb to write them. The KS was a success but 6 of the new adventures didn't get unlocked as stretch goals. The problem was that we went ahead and had all of the new adventures written with nothing to do with them.

Our problem becomes your good news, though. During the course of the KS we had sent a survey to all Froggie fans and asked if there was any interest in converting those old adventures along with the new adventures to PF and/or Swords & Wizardry. The answer was a resounding YES!!

So that brings us here. We're taking all 18 of the adventures and dishing them up in a mega-adventure book called Quests of Doom with versions for Pathfinder and Swords & Wizardry (yes, I know technically there are only 12 new adventures and 6 updates, but they're new to PF and S&W, gimme a break). We're still working out the logistics of getting those last six adventures to the new 5e fans, but that's not part of this PF and S&W KS.

That's where we are. I will be doing development on all the adventures to make sure that they fit seamlessly into our Lost Lands campaign setting, and all 18 will be a canon part of that setting.

So head on over to the Kickstarter and be the first* to Kickstart this Kickstarter in its Kickstarting!

While everyone here in Froggieland is gearing up for the super-duper, amazing, mind-blowing* release of the Razor Coast Kickstarter,I wanted to drop a quick line and announce that we have just released three new adventures for both PF RPG and Swords & Wizardry version, lest they become lost in the great tsunami that Razor Coast will be. These are way cool, so don't miss out. Here's a quick preview to whet your appetites:

NS4: Blood on the Snow

The long-awaited fourth installment in the Northlands Saga series by the incomparable Kenneth Spencer:

The country of Estenfird is in flames. Wild men and beasts have descended in hordes from the mountains bringing fire and destruction into the forested lands below. The hirths of the North have been called forth to defense, but with the heavy snows of winter delaying travel will their arrival be in time to save this frontier realm? Even the heroic Protector of Estenfird, Hengrid Donarsdottir, is hard pressed and has called upon all heroes to come to their aid. It is time to don arms and armor and brave the winter’s wrath to come to the defense of Estenfird in its hour of need.

NS4: Blood on the Snow is an adventure for the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game and Swords & Wizardy Complete Rules designed for a party of four to six characters of 8th to 10th level. Like all the Northlands Saga adventures, Blood on the Snow can be used on its own, as part of the saga, or as part of an ongoing campaign. It is designed for use with the Northlands setting available from Frog God Games but can easily dropped into any campaign the GM chooses.

As with the other adventures in the Northlands Saga, this is a true Viking adventure. So if you like war cries, big axes, and anachronistic helmets with giant horns on them you'll want to check this out. Here's a link.

Next up-

SNS3: Ice Tower of the Salka

Another of the Saturday Night Specials series, this adventure takes your players into the freezing wilderness. Sixty years ago, a mysterious flood of glacial ice utterly buried the tower stronghold of the Salka, a powerful and evil sorceress known throughout the land. Now, fissuring of the deep ice has revealed the rooftop of this lost tower. The secrets and treasurers of the Salka lie within, awaiting a band of powerful adventurers to explore the depths of her ice-entombed stronghold.

An adventure for PCs Level 8-12

Formats (separate purchase) Swords & Wizardry and Pathfinder

Authors: James C. Boney

Okay, so I haven't actually read this one yet, however, it came through the development desk of my counterpart Matt Finch who brought forth such classics as the Jungle Ruins of Madero-Shanti and The Spire of Iron and Crystal which are great examples of old-school dungeon crawl. Like those, I believe this one was written originally for S&W and converted to PF, so it is a true old-school classic in the making if his prior development projects are any indication. Linky.

And finally-

SNS4: The Mires of Mourning

Another of the Saturday Night Specials series. Adventurers are needed for a simple job: escort a catatonic prisoner of value to the Crown to a sanitarium where he can be safely held for treatment. What could be easier? But the sanitarium lies at the heart of the Creeping Mire, and it’s the rainy season. No patrols or contacts have been able to get through in weeks. What dangers await along the Swamp Road, and why don’t they want the prisoner to reach the sanitarium? And why does the sanitarium staff want the adventurers to place the prisoner in their care and leave as quickly as possible? What secrets are held within the mute man’s head that some would kill for…or worse?

The Mires of Mourning is a Frog God Games adventure for 4-6 characters of 6th level with versions for the Pathfinder and Swords & Wizardry roleplaying games. Set in the generic Frog God Games setting for easy portability into your favorite campaign world. Players must brave the treacherous Swamp Road through the Creeping Mire in order to reach the Mourninghaven Sanitorium. The dangers within that decrepit hospice may be more fearsome than the dreaded swamp itself.

Formats (separate purchase) Swords and Wizardry and Pathfinder

Authors: Greg A. Vaughan and Kevin Wright

This is my favorite of the three (okay, I might be just a touch biased), but it's a great little adventure. I ran playtests for it at both ReaperCon and North Texas RPG Con to excellent reviews from the players. So if you like a little mystery mixed in with your madhouse, dungeon/swamp slog, then this is definitely the purchase for you. As always, here's a link.

I hope these are of interest, and I look forward to hearing everyone's thoughts of them before all rational thought is blotted out by the behemoth of Razor Coast.

SO there's a convention in Dallas called NTRPG Con that's held June 7-10. Its been going on for years and it is oooooolllldddd school. By which I mean they play 0e and 1e with games run by people named Erol Otus and Frank Mentzer, and Jeff Dee. Seriously old school from the classic heyday of the game. I bring it up because I had never heard of it until last year, and this year I and most of the rest of the Frog God Games folks are going (in all fairness Bill and Matt Finch have been going for years, but it's new to me).

So why do I bring it up. Well, for the first time ever, as far as I know, there are going to be Pathfinder RPG games at NTRPG Con. I know this because they've graciously allowed me to run them. So this gets to the heart of the matter. I'm going to be running the forthcoming Mires of Mourning adventure soon to be released by FGG. So far it's only been run in part at ReaperCon last year, but this year I've got 12 hours of slots allotted to it, so it shall be revealed in its entirety.

So here's the deal. It came up for registration last night and MY TABLE IS NOT FULL!!!! Okay it's been less than 24 hours, but those guys like Mentzer and the rest have to beat players back with a stick. Plus I thought it was really cool of the convention to give a "new-age" gamer a chance to break into their venerable gamers club.

Therefore, I am making this heartfelt plea: If you are in the Dallas area or will be in the Dallas area around June 9, come to NTRPG Con and play in my PF game. I've got to look good for these veterans so they don't call be FNG and yell at me to get off their lawn. The Con is only $40 for all 4 days and the games themselves are free; you just have to register for them online. So if it's in any way in your wheelhouse and you've got some time to kill around then, come on down and play in my game! But first go online to NTRPG Con and register to sign up for it.

Just to clarify in the interests of full disclosure. I am running a pre-release FGG adventure for PF RPG, not a Pathfinder Society Game. I hope to see you there!!! :-)

I didn't want this to intrude on the Sinister Adventures thread dealing with the re-emergence of Nic Logue and the fate of Razor Coast or otherwise detract from it, however several people there have mentioned a desire to see more of Messrs. Agresta and Logue in print. I talked to Lou about it, and we thought this might be a good time to let the cat out of the bag while people are looking for something like this rather than later when it might slip past interested parties unnoticed and cause them to miss out on it: [/long preamble]

Forthcoming this summer from Frog God Games is a new adventure by Lou Agresta and Nicolas Logue. It is completely written and sitting on my hard drive right now going through development, so this isn't just vaporware. Ideally I'd like to have it out by Paizo Con (and somehow talk Lou into joining us at Paizo Con), but we'll have to see how long the printing and layout takes with the backlog that Slumbering Tsar has created for us before we'll know for sure.

Just so no one gets the idea that Nic has been secretly co-writing adventures on the side while all this has gone on, this is actually an adventure that the two collaborated on years ago for Dungeon Magazine but that got the axe when the print magazine went away. After sitting in a dusty digital box all this time, it has finally found it's way to the light and will feature the craft of Mr. RPG-FEMA Agresta and Mr. Hook Mountain (OMG I'm still having nightmares!)Logue.

ST14 has gone through its edits and is back to Chuck to complete the final layout. It won't be posted for sale until Bill returns from vacation in a couple of weeks, but it is the final chapter of the Slumbering Tsar Saga so I wanted to take this opportunity to give you a heads up.

As you may or may not be aware, the entire subscription to the Slumbering Tsar Sage (pdfs of all 14 chapters plus a limited copy of the hardback) is available through the FGG website at talesofthefroggod.com.

As Bill has indicated, anyone who purchases this full subscription gets their hardback signed by himself and me plus some special bonus material. He has also indicated that once ST14 goes up for sale, the subscription option will no longer be available. You will still be able to purchase the hardback through Paizo or our website, but the limited signed copy with bonus material will not be available any longer. Since ST14 is about to be posted for sale soon, I wanted to give everyone a reminder and last chance to get in on the special limited bonus edition. We will not be doing reprints of it.

I also wanted to fill you in on what sort of bonus material will be in the limited edition book. Bill has dropped hints here and there, but since I'm working on it right now, I'll just come out and say it. The bonus material is an additional adventure chapter that takes place in Tsar after the completion of the epic saga's 14 other adventures. I think it's turning out pretty cool as I write it, and if you're a long-time Necromancer Games or Frog God Games fan, you're definitely going to want it. It ties in some world lore that people have been itching for for years. I'm not going to spoil it but trust me, if you've followed Frog God Games and/or Necromancer Games in the past, you are going to want this chapter. And if you haven't been following the FGG/Necro world, it's still pretty cool bonus content with a signed edition. We're anticipating that the Slumbering Tsar Saga book may be the largest RPG book ever printed (I believe it will far exceed our own Tome of Horrors Complete once it goes through final layout) plus it's benefiting from over a year of messageboards errata that we are compiling and incorporating to catch the typos and work out any kinks that were discovered in the individual adventure releases. Trust me, you are not going want to miss this.

So look for it on our website and don't miss out. And if the subscription is not for you, remember you can always purchase the regular edition of the hardback here at the Paizo store once it is released.

As we enter the final wrap-up stages of putting this book together before it goes to layout in a couple weeks, I have just completed compiling its Table of Contents. Obviously it is sans page numbers at this point, but I thought I'd give you guys a little teaser for those who are thinking of checking this book out, so you can see exactly what is in store. This TOC is for the PF RPG version (the S&W version is still underway).

Also, as a reminder the preorders for the book will end June 30 so we can get the numbers into the printers. Preorders can be made at talesofthefroggod.com.

I talked to Bill this weekend and received some big news in regards to The Tome of Horrors Complete (PF and S&W editions).

In order to have the books available by Gen Con, we are closing the preorders after June 30th so we will know how many of each to print. We will likely print a few extras, but the books are going to be fairly expensive to print on anything other than a large scale, so there is unlikely to be a reprint (not impossible, but there would have to be a huge demand to justify the cost). So while the pdf will remain available, those hoping to catch a physical copy other than through preorder could have difficulty finding it. There have been some copies ordered for distribution through Noble Knight and Troll and Toad I believe, but again due to its prohibitive cost I don't believe that there will be very many on store shelves. Frog God is just a little company, and this is hugemongous book, so we can't just flood the market with copies without knowing how many will sell or not.

So I just wanted to let you all know; no rush and no need to panic, but we did have to set a hard date on which to end preorders so we can actually print the book, and I wanted to make sure you all knew with as much prior notice as possible.

This book will be released in 2 formats; Swords and Wizardry and Pathfinder. It will consist of a huge volume encompassing all three Necromancer Games Tome of Horror volumes. Release date is Summer 2011, and retail price is TBD. This will be hardcover release. This massive Tome will contain almost 1000 monsters retstatted and reworked for both game systems, all in one place.

This is the largest, most comprehensive monster book ever released. Each monster is individually illustrated.

I know, I know, the Desolation is a beast of a puzzle to put together if you don't already know what it's supposed to look like, and it's the central focus of the first three adventures of the Slumbering Tsar Saga from Frog God Games. All I can say is that when I first designed it to be one book it was my intention for it to be a poster map.

Well, after much customer feedback and tapping the esteemed James Keegan (of Wayfinder and KQ fame) for another of his extraordinary pieces of art, Frog God is providing its first free download (I say first, I don't know if there will be more or not, but I do know that it's the first), a players' map of the Desolation (no doubt pried from some unlucky sucker's dead fingers where he was found out in the muck) that can be distributed when your PCs first arrive in The Camp and start asking around about that Big Wasteland sitting in the settlement's backyard. Or make them build it from clues as they quiz the locals and dig for information. Do whatever you want with it; it's yours and it's free!

Ideally it would have been put into the ST1: Edge of Oblivion adventure, but that has already been released and gone to print. My intention is to include it in the big combined book when the whole thing is released at the end, but until then download it for free here.

1 part sandboxy wilderness, 1 part sandboxy ruined city, and 3 parts sandboxy dungeon crawl (did I mention the sandbox aspect?), the Slumbering Tsar Saga can take your old school campaign from 7th level to 20th and above. Plus it features artwork by the Paizoboards' own James Keegan who has been featured in Wayfinder, KQ, and other fine venues.

I had a much more detailed post prepared, but it was eaten when I tried to post it, so head on over to Frog God Games (scion of Necromancer Games) for more info.

Okay, I've just finished reading the adventure and associated articles (got bogged down in some other stuff for a while there), and I think I've addressed all the errors and questions that have been raised. However, if I've missed something or someone notices something else, please shoot me a question on this thread or one of the others and I'll keep on eye out for them.

I have finished my first reading of Skeletons of Scarwall and noticed that a few errors had crept into the text and maps. So I thought I'd list them (and their fixes) here to save folks the trouble later. This is just what I've noticed after a single read-through, so it is by no means exhaustive. If you find any others, let me know, and I will update the list.

Of course, spoilers abound.

Here's what I've got:

Page 23 the descriptions of Pegg and Loute are slightly twisted. Pegg is the short one with a wooden leg, and Loute is the tall one with grotesquely long arms.

Page 24 under the Lords of Scarwall, it mentions that Belshallam was once a favored mount of Kazavon. Strike that, Belshallam came along much lter, and the two never actually me.

The map on page 26 shows a letter "A" narked in room 4, seeming to indicate tat the chamber was a barracks.The letter "A" should not be there. Room 4 was a defensive chamber.

Room 22 was left off the map. The lone western tower on the page 34 map with atrapdoor in the floor labeled "T1" is room 22.

On the map on page 34 the roof of the observatory at the west end of the castle (room 14) should be composed of rose-tinted panes of glass, not shingles like the rest of the roof as it is drawn.

The map on page 40 shows a trapdoor in the ceiling of one of the rooms labeled "24." There is no trapdoor in that room.

The map on page 40 has two rooms labeled as "24." Only the central room is room 24. The southern trapezoidal room labeled "24" is actually room 29.

The map on page 40 shows the balconies labeled as "25" as having stone railings. There are actually no railings on those balconies.

The map on page 40 shows an unnumbered trapezoidal room at the north end of the keep opposite the one that is incorrectly labeled as "24" (see above). This unnumbered room is actually room 26.

On the map on page 40, there should be a secret door in the south wall of room 28.

The map on page 40 shows a trapdoor in the floor of room 32. This shoukld be removed. The only access to room 32 is by climbing or flying.

The map on page 40 also makes it appear as if room 32 is "open" with only a stone railing around it. The central cupola should have solid walls pierced by two doors leading out onto balconies. The balconies should have the stone railings.

On the map on page 34 add a secret door in the alcove behind the statue in room 37.

On the map on page 34 the hallway marked as room 28 should be room 38.

Not to sound too egomaniacal here or anything, but in a world of Nic Logues and Richard Petts one feels that one must beat them at their own self-aggrandizing game. Out-Pett Pett, so to speak (that doesn't sound very good when I read it aloud actually, but you get what I mean).

Now some of my naysayers (namely those that reside across vast reachs of ocean) might mention that I am the chief abuser of self-aggrandizement of all, and I suppose it could be said that such is true...when one looks at it "from a certain point of view" (thank you, Obi Wan Kenobi, for giving us all that most-excellent argument of deflection). So since "from a certain point of view" I feel like I can say I'm at best the second-worst shameless self-promoter (without feeling the need to put forth any other viable candidate), I will remain gleefully oblivious to all such arguments.

So moving on from all that unpleasant business on to the topic at hand. It is a simple statement of logic that Paizo regularly features products from WotC (and other publishers) at the top of the homepage complete with a blurb, and that with the release of The Twilight Tomb I have now been published by the above-said entity, it, therefore, stands to reason that The Twilight Tomb should be featured atop the home page of the Paizo website. It's a simple 1+1+1 = The Twilight Tomb. How can you argue with that? Add into that, the fact that both Richard Pett and Nic Logue have previously been published by WotC and yet failed to think of this idea, and I think the answer is irrefutable--The Twilight Tomb it is.

Now it's true, that I receive no royalties for said adventure, but if it should reach platinum status in sales then there is a chance WotC might someday throw more work my way and I can finally achieve my lifelong dream of owning a solid gold rocket car off of the ridiculous wages thrown at freelance adventure-writing (I actually blush to think about the amounts, and we never even get random drug tests like those poor professional athletes).

That having ben said, I think the answer is once again obvious, Down with Logue and Pett....I mean put The Twilight Tomb on the home page.

I hope this subtle post is viewed in the true spirit of humility and world peace that it is intended and with this gesture we no longer have to endure any more frightening wars with foreign lands like England or Hawaii.

The AoW adventures have gotten a lot of press (and are certainly deserving), and I suppose it's just the nature of the beast, but I wanted to start a thread and invite comment on the other adventures in these two issues. I have to say that in my opinion an already-excellent magazine has really stepped it up with these latest outings.

I think Kevin Carter's "Ill Made Graves" is great. I love the viking flavor (especially the GH viking flavor) in it. I know there have been viking-style adventures over the years, but I can't think of any that have captured the feel as well. The whole Beowulf homage is great and seemed to even be an homage to another Beowulf homage. It reminded me of "Eaters of the Dead" by Creighton ("The 13th Warrior" to the uncouth churls out there). Anyway, an excellent adventure and especially ingenius in its use of the artifact's powers that activate in different areas of the dungeon.

As to Nic Logue's "Chimes at Midnight" I must begin by saying that while I'm not in the "I hate Eberron" camp and think it is an extremely creative and cinenatic-feeling setting, it never really appealed to my style of play. I have the books and think they are some high quality stuff (Keith Baker has a great mind), and I've enjoyed the previous Eberron adventures in Dungeon (in the sense of "that's nice but I'll probably never use it"). However, I think Nic has hit a homerun with "Chimes". I haven't even finished it yet and I'm hooked. The plot, the villains, the setup, it's all top notch. I find myself thinking how can I adapt this out of Eberron to use it. And then find myself thinking that perhaps I should just use it Eberron as intended. Obviously his WotC adventure coming out later this year is going to be a hit if it's anytjing like "Chimes", and I suspect he's likely to have a long and prosperous career writing Eberron (as well as AP and other stuff, of course). Well, that's enough gushing. I was just startled by how interested I got in this Eberron adventure.

Okay moving on...

Chris Wissel's (I believe) first outing as a full adventure, "Wingclipper's Revenge" is also great (see no Word-of-the-Day calendar, ASEO!). It's great greatness is greatly enhanced by the fact that is so enjoyable to me when arguably fey adventures and forest adventures are my least favorite kinds of adventures (not that there's anything wrong with them, they just seem to have been the most abused in the past). It has a neat story, a wonderfully horrid motive, and Nightshade Hold is a cool, I mean, great location. Chris's imagination is so good I mainly spend my days lurking on the boards looking for his posts to steal ideas for adventures from him (my wallet thanks you, Chris).

Finally I come to Campbell Pentney's "Caverns of the Ooze Lord". This is a nice horror movie stuffed into an adventure. It could have been twice as long and still been just as interesting. I kept looking back to the title page of this grim tale to make sure it hadn't been written by Richard Pett. Congratulations to Mr. Pentney (and the future Mrs. Pentney, I suppose) on a wonderful adventure. Reading it was like walking the streets of Dunwich.

Well, it has finally happened. One of my adventures (The Hateful Legacy) and one of Richard Pett's adventures (I forget the name just now) are finally running head to head in an issue of Dungeon.

There was some discussion of this over on the thread for Dungeon 118--Shadows the the Abyss with Richard Pett chiming it. Frankly I chose to take high road, but then Mr. Pett got downright caddy and made some unflattering remarks about my grammar. I chose to point out a few of his own foibles, and evidently he decided the gauntlet had been thrown.

Well, if you've been over to that thread you can see that the banter has gone back and forth a bit about the relative merits of our two adventures. So far, a cursory examnination I think would reveal: The Hateful Legacy--great; Prince of Redhand--not so good.

Some outside parties have become involved; Koldoon/Ashavan appears to be firmly in Mr. Pett's camp having been won over by his phony British charm (I think he actually lives in Cleveland, but that's just me). Anyway after a few rounds of this Mr. Pett cried foul in a personal e-mail to me and claimed I had homefield advantage since it was on a thread dedicated to one of my own works. Once again I chose to bow to his churlish demands and move this over to a more neutral site. The result is this thread that you see before you.

Here Rich and I will duel over whose adventure is superior, and I will, of course, prevail. Nonetheless, even though very few of you have actually seen either of these soon-to-be-released adventures please feel free to add your comments. As I see it, it looks like a great opportunity to have a Let's Bash On Rich Fest...I mean a spot of jolly good competition (as my worthy adversary would say)